In May of 2010 I moved from St. Petersburg, FL to Arlington, VA for what, at
the time, was a six month government contract. The contract was with a Reston,
VA company so every day I had to make the commute from Arlington to Reston and
back, the most direct route being the Dulles Access Toll Road. After a month
or so I started, for convenience, changing my address on services and
utilities to receive the bills at my Virginia address. Once such address
change was my car insurance. What I did not realize was that by changing my
address on the insurance, Florida would suspend my plates and driver?s license
for not having insurance on a car I owned that was registered in the state. On
one commute home, I was stopped by a Toll Road Airport cop for an illegal lane
change. I was told that I didn?t have a valid plate or a valid Florida
license. My car was towed at a cost of over $600 and it cost me another
$100-ish to get Virginia plates in order to get the car out of tow. Meanwhile,
I couldn?t get a Virginia driver?s license because I had a suspended license
in Florida. Once I turned my Florida plate in, my Florida license was
reinstated, but I now had $1500 worth of tickets in Virginia and Virginia had
suspended my Florida license from driving in Virginia. Meanwhile, in order to
pay the $1500 in tickets, I still had to get to work in Reston every day.
When I
received my Virginia plate, I only received the sticker for the year of
renewal. They never sent me the month. About halfway through paying off the
Virginia tickets, I was stopped again by the Toll Road Police for not having
the month sticker on my Virginia plate and the officer told me my driving
privilege was suspended from a ticket for having a suspended license so i now
had a ?driving without a license, second offense? and he would require me to
appear in court. I showed up for my court date and the judge informed me that
a second offense carried with it the possibility of jail time and I needed a
lawyer. My court date is Nov 17. With God as my witness, I will never drive
the toll road again.